Virtually Broke

As we move towards an age where money becomes more of a concept and less of a tangible object, only we are to blame for creating the economic disconnect it brings. Gone are the days when the gold coin in your hand represented exactly that: a gold coin. Picture yourself walking in a crowded marketplace and stopping at a fruit stall. When the merchant tells you how much he wants for the fresh bushel of shiny red apples, you place a hand in your pocket and feel the weight of your coins, and you know if it is worth it to you. Back to the present moment, the merchant is replaced by a virtual shopping basket on your computer monitor, the apples are reduced to a bland, two-dimensional picture on your screen, and the coins in your pocket are sitting as bullion in a high security building some place you do not know the location of, but they are represented by a small wafer thin card in your hand. So how do you expect to know the actual worth of those apples? The cashless economy decides.

As we use technology for more convenient and 'hassle free' purchasing, we slowly lose the concept of money. I would rather carry around gold coins on my person at all times, knowing what I am gaining and losing at every purchase. Also, due to their weight, we would be reluctant to carry around too much in the first place, and therefore avoid impulse buys. Now, a more reasonable person would argue that it would be impossible to buy a car or house in this way. However, for big purchases like that, both parties should just go to the bank. I mean, if you are making such a grand expense, what's the problem with a short trip to the bank? By making money virtual, we have made it too easy to spend money on anything and everything. This is counterproductive in the long run, since people succumb to impulse buys and end up spending more than they should.

The automated merchant and their virtual store is another wolf in disguise. It takes no effort to sit in one place and browse thousands of items you most probably don't need, and would never think of buying if you never saw them. Products are practically forced upon us these days, and since the merchant only needs your card number, their job is made easy, while your hard earned money is vacuumed away. What ever happened to the jolly merchant pulling you to his stall and offering you the 'freshest fruit in the market'? What happened to all the haggling? Where are the products I can touch before buying, without having to sign a 30-page disclaimer stating that the item is non-refundable? Where is the personal experience?

This is the disconnect. The value of money is no longer in your (the buyer's) hands. It is the virtual marketplace that decides what is worth how much. We are shameless in our desires to buy whatever we see, and the virtual merchants have capitalized on our greedy human nature. Taking away our money and replacing it with an impersonal magic wand, with the power of purchase, has turned us into little kids in an inexhaustible candy store. God help us.

What's in a Name?

Why is it when someone dies, their written word, their handmade drawings, their ideas, and anything else they may have left behind becomes that much more important to us? Is it because we want to hold on to their past? Or is it because we recognize the uniqueness of each person's creative footprints? Should we feel ashamed we didn't cherish these gifts when they were still alive? Or are we just giving posthumous meaning to a person's life after they have long left the earth?

As humans, maybe we aren't happy with just being left with genetic leftovers. Maybe we are compelled further to give meaning to our existence. I guess this is what separates us from animals. We are cursed with vivid memories, and need a lot more than family traits to fill the void that is left behind after the passing of a loved one. Then would ignorance really be bliss? Would we be better off with a meaningless existence? Or is our current existence also meaningless and have we just found ways to give meaning to nothing?

Just as our forefathers left us with inscriptions and tablets, in order to know more about them and hence carry on their names and knowledge. Was it just for naught? Yes, we gained from their experiences, but who do we ultimately pass on their names to along with ours, and why? If the human civilization was to exist for another 1000 years or 5000 years, who would care who Ramses the Third was? And if they did care, why? Posthumous infamy? It's meaningless.

Or is it?

Shoot to kill?

Ok, so I just got done watching some famous school shooting videos posted on Youtube, and thereafter some parodies and other such nonsense that shows up in the "related videos" section of the website. I disappeared into my thoughts and decided to write 'em down:

You can have all the guns in the world, but if you don't have the balls to pull the trigger, you won't. You're either built like that or you aren't. It's as simple as that. You can't turn a vegetarian into a meat-eater. Well, maybe you can, but there will always be that little voice in the back of their mind going, 'what the fuck have I done?'. If you don't have the heart to take a life, you can act tough, you can threaten people as much as you want, but you wont' have the heart to do anything. You won't admit to this, because you'll be labeled a pussy, but this is you. You either kill or you don't. You either care, or you won't. Be who you are. If you try to be something you're not, you end up fucking others and yourself.

Shooting a gun doesn't take courage. Shooting a gun at a human being is something else. It's not in us to kill each other at a push of a button, or a pull of the trigger. Others find it as a means to an end, but no matter how insane you are, you regret it if you're lucky enough to live that long.

Movie endings

I hate turning a good movie off when its done. You know the type which invokes deep emotions we don't normally feel whilst we go about our everyday lives. Once the movie is turned off, and the ending soundtrack is replaced by silence, the meaningful moment is abruptly lost. Like an epiphany one has sometimes right before dosing off to sleep, and there's no pen handy, so you just decide you will remember it in the morning. But when morning comes, you have no recollection whatsoever of what it was you had thought of before falling asleep. You knew it was something important, something maybe life-changing at the time, but you push it aside and dismiss it as a nothing.

How many of these 'moments' have we had in our lives that we've never noted down to share with others, or to just reminisce about on a rainy day? Well, I'm 27, and I've decided to write this one down, while the credits of Jerry Mcguire are rolling down my TV screen.